I hear Jae sniffing the air then she glances back over her shoulder, down at me. "Meira is that you?"
My snarl is the only response as I wrestle with the rope.
"Please hurry, they’re really close," she cries, making whimpering sounds. I inhale her perspiration and fear.
I wrench at the rope and my teeth bite right through it, releasing it.
She's quick to pull free and toss the bonds aside, then swings toward me. "Let’s get out of here!"
And I freeze at first, unsure where to take her. Behind her, half a dozen zombies have noticed the commotion and are coming over.
It doesn't take long for the bastards. They are like the sharks of the land. Smell of blood or any sound that sounds like trouble and they appear to investigate. Just in case it's a meal.
"Meira," Jae calls out and is running in the opposite direction to the compound and away from the zombies.
I want to scream after her that we must get closer to the pack. There are snipers on the gate that will shoot the creatures on site. But all that comes out is a guttural growl.
Because I'm a wolf, and it's only now that it hits me, I don't know how to transform back into a human.
A Shadow Monster slips right past me and runs after Jae.
I lunge after the fiend, crash tackling it, bringing it to the ground. It bucks against me, not staying still, never staying down. Fury billows inside me as three others already pass me.
Jae is bouncing deeper into the woods.
Having had enough, I bite down into the back of its neck. It has a massive, healed scar across his bald head which looks painful, if this man was alive. Something suddenly cracks in its body. Please let that slow it down. I don't wait to find out and sprint after the girl.
Putrid blood taints my tongue, and panic flares that I’d made a terrible mistake. Taking their blood into my body might tip me into becoming one of them or… I don’t really know because these creatures ignore me like I am still immune. But the notion still freaks me out. Nothing about what’s going on with me follows any rules.
Seconds pass and nothing happens to me. No change or urgent need to kill the living. But I don’t have time for this. Not now.
I'm running after Jae, attacking the next three zombies, biting deep into their sides and legs to cause damage, to toss them aside. Anything to slow them down. They don’t even react, it’s as if I’m invisible to them.
I lose sight of Jae, and I look left and right, I sniff the air to catch her faint scent—powdery and earthy.
In seconds, I am on her heels again. She screams at my approach, until she looks back to see it's only me. “I really hope that is Meira inside there,” she says nervously.
Glancing behind me, she realizes we've left the creatures way behind us.
She pauses, resting against a tree, breathing fast.
I inhale raspy breaths, then my tongue dangles out, and more than anything, I need to transform back. Looking up at Jae, she stares at me, tilting her head.
Making a whiny sound, I sit in front of her, unsure how to communicate that I'm stuck.
"Why aren't you changing?" she asks, worry coating her words. "I don't really know this area too well, but there are caves farther up the hill behind me I passed days ago. We can go hide there?" She's breathing heavy and talking quickly.
I nudge my head against her thigh, then start moving toward the mountain so she knows I agree with her plan. Another glance behind us and no sign of the undead following. My attention sweeps over in the direction of the compound, where I want to be heading, not away from it.
But first, I need to get Jae out of harm's way.
She steps up alongside me and we're marching through the shadowy woods. She’s talking, but I’m not listening at first. Instead, I scan the woods, smell scents, listen for sounds. Then I look up at Jae.
"Meira, please don't tell me you don't know how to change back from wolf form. I once heard of a wolf who got trapped and stayed in her animal form her whole life."
My heart jackhammers at her words. Is she serious? I don't hear another word she says when panic replaces everything else I feel with a dreadful sinking feeling.
I can’t be stuck in my wolf form. Please, no!
Chapter 2
Dušan
A hard fist connects to my back, driving me into the dingy prison cell. Fire burns through my veins as I whip back around to the door made of iron bars slamming shut with a thunderous clang, locking me inside.
The whole room feels like it tilts on its axis, the dark stone walls, the floor covered in dirt and stinking of urine, and I stumble, crashing into the wall, losing my balance. Whatever the fuck they injected into me knocked me out cold. Even when I came to, moments before reaching the cell, I could barely stand, let alone think straight.
I shake my head to clear the fog in my mind. When I glance up, I meet Mad’s gaze. He leans against the wall outside my cell in a wide stance, hands deep in his pockets. Shadows gather under his eyes and his mouth splits into a smirk, revealing yellowed teeth.
There’s no sign of Lucien or Bardhyl, and only when I look around do I note I’m in the deepest prison, my underground prison. I have two floors of cells since I also use them to help Ash Wolves struggling on full moons. I once put Mad in here when his wolf had lost control on a blue moon. And now the bastard stuck me in here as a lesson, as torment, I have no doubt.
“You asshole!” A growl rolls over my throat as I push myself to stand upright. Every inch of me hurts while my thoughts lock on Meira and the last time I saw her. Mad’s wolves injected her, then she experienced her first transformation. My fists curl and I want to slam Mad’s head into the wall for touching her. I don’t even know if she survived the change, and the thought brings a stabbing pain deep in my chest. I might have lost her.
I have to believe she’s alive, or why else would my asshole stepbrother be in here alone? Hell, he’d bring her carcass to haunt me if she were dead. My pulse ices over at the thought.
I promised to be there for Meira, but I let her down at the one time she needed me the most. All because of the weasel I’m going to murder. He betrayed me, and I should never have left him alone in the prison. Of course, he had allies to break him out… I fucking hate hindsight, but would I change things if I had my time over? Not if it meant not finding Meira.
Rage collides into me, and I roar more like a lion than a wolf at how fucked-up everything turned out.
I lunge forward, shaking the bars. “Let me the hell out!” I bellow.
“Brother, why would I do that?”
I spit on the floor between us. “You are not my real brother, but you are everything like your father.”
His expression twists in a flash from a calm demeanor to a raging bull. He bursts toward me, nostrils flaring. His ice-blue eyes narrow, while his white hair sits wildly around his face. I want him fuming so he makes a mistake, comes in for me. Desperation for a savage fight rattles through me, and my sights are set on the wolf I should have eliminated long ago. I should have listened to Lucien and Bardhyl. But that’s not a miscalculation I’ll make again.
Mad stops just out of reach from me, strangely in control for someone who rarely thought before he acted. His entire body trembles, and he inhales heavily, the struggle to hold back clear. He stands as broad as me, but runs from most fights. So I poke the bear.